In my English class, we have been reading Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. So far it is a little different than would have expected. I didn't expect to have the element of the mom running off with another man. That is one thing you don't expect to see in a children's book. This, however, was a welcome surprise. I enjoyed seeing that the book had some depth to it instead of it being just a lighthearted book. I haven't been confused by anything at this point as it seems to be a pretty straightforward book at this point.
Also, in our class, we were put into groups that indicated how we were to view the story. I was put into the allegory group. This means I had to look for things that could have symbolized a person or event in the author's life and look deeper into the text. One possible symbol could be when the wife left Rashid. This could symbolize the people who no longer supported the author when the Satanic Verses was released and left him behind. We are also annotating sections of the book. One of the ways we are annotating deals with the stories we tell ourselves and reality. Two lines that caught my attention both dealt with this. One quote reads, "When Haroun heard his father say only a story, he understood that the Shah of Blah was very depressed indeed, because only deep despair could have made him say such a terrible thing." The other, which is much too long to quote here, is a paragraph where we see that Rashid is questioning giving everything up because he can no longer tell stories. These two passages show how Rashid is losing his identity because he can no longer tell stories, which is all he knows. This in turn is making him depressed as he feels that he is no longer himself. Finally, we had an discussion in class about the book. I was intrigued by the topic of what state of mind you have to be in when telling a story. We talked about how it is easier to tel stories when we are happier, but the impact of a story can be stronger when a person is upset. We related this to the book as we thought about how the book would be different if it was more focused on Rashid than Haroun. And that's where we are in the book. I will continue to update as we continue to read the book. Emily
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10/11/2016 07:41:58 am
Emily,
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